Even in it’s 25th-anniversary-of-ESPN feature on Chris Berman, Sports Illustrated couldn’t resist getting some digs in at the Deposed Worldwide Leader:
Berman says he'll know it's time to leave for the land he already owns on Maui when his references to the Rolling Stones fall dumbly on hip-hop ears. Already there are signs that ESPN is getting away from him a bit. He claims not to have seen an NBA game in 10 years, and at this year's major league All-Star Game, when SportsCenter led with the trade of Shaquille O'Neal to the Miami Heat instead of baseball, an open microphone caught Berman telling broadcast partner Harold Reynolds, "Now you know why I don't watch our show anymore."When SI commemorates ESPN’s 35th anniversary in 2014, will the signature profile be of Stephen A. Smith?
Meanwhile, because there wasn't enough poker on the network before, ESPN will soon begin broadcasting fictional poker- as the basis of a new dramatic series, “Tilt.” Can’t possibly be as horrible as “Playmakers,” but I still don’t have high hopes.
Then there’s the rumors that the Fox Sports will attempt to lure PTI’s Tony Kornheiser and Michael Wilbon away from ESPN. Not sure how I feel about that, but considering that the item below that in the Detroit Free Press talks about how an ESPN.com Page 3 piece has named the University of Michigan and Magic Johnson as “two of the nation's top playa haters,” maybe TK and Wilbon should get out while they still can.
Posted by Stephen Silver at August 27, 2004 03:19 AM